School trip pending budget outcome

A traditional trip offered to Eudora students may be put on hold depending on how the district's budget pans out in the upcoming months.

Superintendent Marty Kobza said after gathering more information about the budget, USD 491 would have a better idea of where it stood and whether it would be able to offer the nearly $1,500 it had contributed in the past for Wilderness Course trips. The Board will discuss its budget further at 9 a.m. Saturday during a special Board meeting at the district office.

Eudora Middle School teacher and trip leader Dan Kuhlman said the trips cost about $150 per student plus $50 for incidentals, but students could spend between $50 and $100 on equipment.

"We don't want it to be where only the wealthy kids can go," he said.

He told the Board he also understood the financial situation of the schools. Board member Kenny Massey said although he'd heard "great things" about the student trips he thought the Board should table the issue until the district worked through its budget issues.

This summer, Kuhlman and Eudora West teacher Mark Katzenmeier are considering taking the students to southern Colorado for nine days, but the site hadn't yet been determined, they said at the Jan. 9 Board of Education meeting.

The trips, which began in 1993, took place every summer through 1997, when Kuhlman said students went on an every-other-year basis, visiting sites in Colorado and Wyoming.

Kuhlman said eight or nine students who applied for the trip were accepted.

"There's an issue in terms of safety and having the right ratio of staff to kids," he said.